Quick And Easy Welsh Words You'll Love To Learn - 24 words

 

I started reviving my Welsh on Duolingo. 

I went back to Spanish. I saw the Spanish word sofa. Easy-peasy. Would there be similar words in Welsh?

In my languages A5 notebook I kept one page of words which were just learned, in alphabetical order. I started a second page on words which were the same or almost the same in English, so I could look at them last thing at night, instead of counting sheep, counting in another language, or before a bus or train journey, to remember the same and similar words and repeat them to myself.

Then I thought, why am I bothering to compile a list of same words? Just find a list in google using AI, or in Wikipedia, and put it in alphabetical order so I can remember it.

Here is my result in Welsh

Welsh - English

bedd - grave (a bed for the dead)

beic - bike

bont/pont - bridge

caer - castle or fort, for example, Caerleon, which is near Cardiff, Caerphilly, 9 miles north of Cardiff, gives its name to Caerphilly cheese, and Caerphilly castle.  Possibly Caerphilly came from Philip's castle, or castle of Philip. 

capel - chapel

car - car

castell - castle

coffi - coffee

croes - cross/crossroad

cwm - combe, a steep, narrow valley

Glynn - Welsh boys' first name, from Glwn - glen/valley/deep valley

helo - hello (older spelling hallo)

mam - mother

mawr - large (more of it)

melin - mill

Rhil - yr-the+hill

merthyr - martyr (Merthyrtidfil)

siop - shop

siop goffi - coffee shop

soffa - sofa

tabl - table

tad - dad/father

tren - train

tref- town/village + fôr / mawr - large (major, think of the English word more) - Trevor

English - Welsh

bike - beic

bridge - bont/pont

car - car

castle - castell/caer

chapel - capel

coffee - coffi

coffee shop - siop goffi

dad/father - tad

glen/valley - gwyn/Glynn

grave - bedd

hello (older spelling hallo) - helo

mother - mam

mill - melin

shop - siop

sofa - soffa

table - tabl

train - trên

Trevor - tref=village+mawr  /fôr large

In Spanish

Spanish - English

sofa - sofa

tren - train

English - Spanish

sofa - sofa

train - tren

Useful Websites

translate Google

wikipedia - similar words in Welsh

wikipedia - Welsh Wikipedia

Useful Websites On Welsh Words And Names

https://surnames.behindthename.com/names/usage/welsh

Welsh Placenames

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_toponymy

Souvenirs of Wales

https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/landofmyfathers

See more about Wales in my previous posts

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2022/02/prepare-to-celebrate-st-davids-day.html

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2021/04/welsh-words-on-stations-and-buildings.html

lease share links to your favourite posts.

Post being updated. Come back in half an hour and later today and tomorrow.

Useful Spanish for shopping

 I want to buy - Quiero comprar

a gift - un regalo

a souvenir - un recuerdo

I need - Necesito (like the English word necessary)

I want to find - Quiero encontrar (like the English word encounter)

a souvenir shop - una tienda de recuerdos (like the English word records, literally a shop of souvenirs, in the plural)

The o ending for verbs in the first person, I, is like amo. I remember learning amo, amas, amat in Latin at school,, for I love, you love, he, she or it loves.

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Harrow & Wealdstone Station and All Stations - Good News on Waiting Rooms, Shops with Sandwiches and Step-free Access

 A sign on the Lioness line (recently renamed - Euston to Watford line, assures us that the stations are manned, or womaned, or personed, from opening time until closing time.

However, returning to Watford you often have to get off at Harrow & Wealdstone and sit on the chilly draughty station late at night. The waiting room is closed. 

We were under the mistaken impression that there was never any warm waiting room. However, returning from an event in London mid-afternoon, I found the station had a waiting room open. 

Photo by Angela Lansbury.

The door sign told me that unfortunately it closes mid-evening, so never open when you return from a night out in central London.

At least it is open for some of the day.

Good News - Wealdstone Station Shop

The other good news discovery for daytime travellers is the shop on Harrow & Wealdstone station. The stock is not very varied, but it has some essentials, such as sandwiches, chocolates. 

Good News - Stepfree access

Another piece of good news is about stepfree access. First, the current accessible stations are marked on station route maps. (For those who find steps challenging but are not challenged by small print and mysterious secret symbols. You can find step free access on stations online, at home, and on your phone if you want to check up while travelling.

More stations are being given step free access. So keep up your spirits and keep watching for good news updates.

Entertainment On Board Brittany Ferry - Books and Velazquez Las Meninas

 

Our ship had a well stocked shop with a row of simple, entertaining books on learning Spanish. Plus toys for children, tee-shirts, flipflops, chocolates, bottles of drink and more.

Acitivites - Whales & Wildlife

Watch the list of activities. The whale watching was cancelled because the decks outside were closed because of bad weather. We were taken out for five minutes later in the day to see tht outdoor artwork, but in one minutes I was almost blown off my feet and as the ship lurched and had to be grabbed and helped back inside.

I did however, instead get to hear a talk about wildlife, Orcas. I picked up their leaflet showing the sizes of dolphins and whales.

French & Spanish

Brittany sounds like Great Britain, but is related to Brittany in France. The ships are French and the staff speak French, which is helpful for people like me who learned French at school and speak better French than Spanish. The announcements are in three languages, and by listening to all three we could hear that Spanish is pretty easy to understand - if you hear the English or french first.

We treated outselves to dinner in the Azul restaurant, sitting by a large round porthole. 

Dinner in the Azul restaurant on board Brittany Ferry. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Azul Restaurant

The lights dimmed and I guessed either we were sinking like the titanic or it was a birthday. I am glad to report the latter. A couple who had a birthday were given a chocolate profiteraole with a sall candle on top and a couple of staff sand happy birthday.

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Isak Winery, Sarander, SW Albania, friendly, fun, see wine, fruit, vegetables, and a great shop

 

 Bottles of red, white and rose wine. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

This family owned and family friendly winery has a shop with wines and spirits but also fig jam, magnets and other souvenirs to look at. 

Fruit Vegetables

In addition to wines, we were shown the greenhouses, not of glass but some kind of opaque cloudy white material. Here in the warmth,  they grow tomatoes and vegetables for supermarkets and restaurants.

They are happy to tell you about their history. The business was originally small winery, bought from a Jewish man called Isak. Now the current owner's family have expanded the business. 

The winery is further south, further away from Tirana, the capital. They are well prepared for large groups, with food and tables. But when we were there were not overwhelmed with coach parties like the other two wineries which we saw in Berat. 

We loved out chats and seeing the fruit and vegetables as well as the wine.

Kantina means winery in Albanian.

Useful Website

https://www.kantinaisak.com/

Paddington Bears - in England and South America, the trail

 

Paddington Bear on Paddington station, London, England, UK.

Nearby is the Paddington Bear shop.

The trail though London includes Paddington station with the bear statue, Buckingham Palace, buying marmalade in Fortnum's, and a big bookstore for a Paddigton bear book. (What about Hamleys toy store?)

If you've done all that, you can see the Paddington Bear statue in Lima, Peru.

Paddington Bear statue in Lima, Peru.

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddington_Bear

https://www.visitlondon.com/things-to-do/family-activities/paddington-bear-itinerary

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El Alamein Shop - UK, and museum

El Alamein Military Museum, Egypt. From Wikipedia.

I was looking for the record of my late mother's first husband, Harry Godfrey, who was in the RAF (Royal Air Force) and died at El Alamein, aged 22, in 1941. He is listed on column 243. 

When I went  to add some details on the my ancestry website, the site asked me to fill in the credentials cited. 

I was filling in details in my family history book which I had bought online. I checked a report about the family of Harry. 

I had not known whether he was of any religion because my mother had married in a register office. It turned out he was Jewish. The family name Godfrey had been Anglicised by his father who was born in England but had inherited the family name Goldberg, meaning gold mountain. 

The El Alamein website has something new to me since I last looked. A shop. 

1 A biodegradable little marker you can place on a grave.

2 Several books of epitaphs.

I double whether I shall ever get to visit El Alamein, although I note that it now has a museum. 

For your own family history book, your family website, and online family tree, it is very handy to have a list of the websites which supplied information. You may find that new information has been added, or that facts and photos of people who were not previously important have now become much more relevant.

Tripadvisor has more than 200 photos. These include the Sharkmouth single-seater US plane with the teeth drawn on the front. Parked outside the museum and around the cemetery are several tanks. Plus anti-aircraft guns. 

Massive monuments honour the different nationalities. It wasn't just the British. 

The Germans and the Italians who at the earlier stages of the war were fighting on the same side, and the Japanese. 

The British monument displays the names of those who have no known grave.  

Inside the museum you see life size models of soldiers in their uniforms. In central areas, and glass cabinets around the side, are flags. Most important in clarifying the events is a map of the battlefield showing the positions of the various nationalities.

What is the significance of this previously unknown area of Egypt? It was the far east of the Mediterranean sea, the gateway to the Middle East and Asia.

My mother's husband had volunteered before the war and was trained and then sent out at the beginning. So many died because the fighting went on and on. The decisive battle was in 1942. But my relative died in 1941. 

The casualty figures are chilling. The recorded deaths, plus the missing in action. One visitor described it as a must for all Anzacs as well as Brits, because it was the turning point of WW2. You can see busts of Montgomery and the German leader, Rommel.

El Alamein was once just a village, now a small town on Egypt's north coast. The location is about 60 miles west of Alexandria. You can reach it by air-conditioned train.

In addition to visiting the museum, you can take a tour of the surrounding area.

Winston Churchill said, 'El Alamein has the best climate in the world. Resorts are being built along the coast.

About the author of this blog post

About the Author Angela Lansbury

BIOGRAPHY

Angela Lansbury B A Hons ACG ALB PM5 EH5 DL5 VC5 
The Author of several books including  Etiquette For Every Occasion. Wedding Speeches & Toasts. How to be the Best Man. Quick Quotations. Who Said What When.

Blogs travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Club Vice President Public Relations (VPPR), Previous President

Join BHA 1st Wednesday 7pm and 3rd Saturday 2 pm Singapore time 

Vice President Public Relations (VP PR) of Tampines Changkat Advanced;

Secretary of weekly online Singapore International Dynamic Toastmasters Speakers’ Club;

Member and past president of Harrovians toastmasters club, UK; Past member of HOD Toastmasters, London. Past member in Singapore of: Toastmasters Club of Singapore (TCS); Tiarel; and Senja Cashew.

More details from Toastmasters International find a club.

Regular attendee at annual Swanwick Writers’ School, England.

Regular attendee at annual Writers’ Holiday, Wales.

Contributor to poetry readings, and after tea courses on: Speaking On Radio To Promote Books; and Plots And Character.

Winner of many club and area speaking contests in the UK and Singapore.

Language advisor to Empire Toastmasters club in Indonesia.

Language and speech workshops in Singapore.

Speaker on radio and TV in England, Scotland, the USA, and Australia.

Compiler of a school course on public speaking for teachers to prepare pupils for school open days with attending ceremonies before government ministers, Singapore.

Former member of Harrow Writers’ Circle, London, and two writing groups in Singapore.

Angela is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter. She would be delighted to link up with new friends.

 Please share links to your favourite posts.

Books by Angela Lansbury
How to be the best man. (Ward Lock / Cassell.)
Wedding Speeches and Toasts.(Ward Lock / Cassell.)
Unforgettable British Weekends.
Poetry Workshop Workbook.
The Tailor and the Spy. (Lulu.)
Larry The Talking Labrador. (Lulu.)
Writing Poetry for fun.

Quick Quotations

Who Said What When

 

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/El_Alamein#Q204439

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/El_Alamein#/maplink/2

https://www.ancestry.com/account/signin

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

https://www.cwgc.org/

https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/discover-raf-records-from-1918-1975-online

https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/search

https://foundation.cwgc.org/shop/

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/1809968/harry-godfrey/

https://wikitravel.org/en/El_Alamein

https://www.ww2cemeteries.com/egy-el-alamein-war-cemetery.html

https://www.myheritage.com/

https://www.rememberingthejewsofww2.co.uk/raf/godfrey-harry/

https://jewsinuniform.com/

The Rothschild's Waddesdon House, garden, Elephants and National Trust Shops

 I was agreeably surprised to learn that you can visit Waddesdon house and gardens. You have to buy timed tickets. If you are a member of the national trust you can visit for free at the allocated time.

I looked online. They have the wooden elephants on display in the gardens. 

A friend of mine is visiting tomorrow Wed 18 August and will report back and send us some photos.

The set tea at 25 pounds was a price which made my family gasp. We used to get a Michelin lunch in London for that price.

Useful Website

https://shop.nationaltrust.org.uk/

Malay words which look and sound similar to English or are easy to remember

 

Flag of Malaysia - looks like the flag of the USA.

 

Flag of Indonesia. The language is almost the same with some different vocabulary, like American English and British English.

The Singapore flag (with a predominantly ethnic Chinese and Mandarin speaking population) has a similar flag but the symbolic crescent is a hark back to the days when Singapore was part of muslim Malaysia.

In the mailboxes of households in Singapore is notice of the distribution of oxygen meters. One per household.

As usual in Singapore, leaflets are printed in English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil.

This provides me with a chance to see the English alongside the Chinese and Malay. The Chinese is harder for me to identify. the Malay uses the same alphabet. Some of the sentence structure is similar.

.Malay (alphabetically)-English

anda you/your

atau or (i think of the English word alternative with the letter a and t at the start, another letter a in the middle and U or V at the end) 

baharu new (as in the city of Johor Bahru across the straits from Singapore) 

boleh able (I think of able-bodied, able is boleh, boleh is able)

cara how

dan and (The same three letters in a different order)

doktor  doctor

farmasi - pharmacy/ pharmacies

kedua shop

klip - clip

lokasi location

mesti must

Ogos - August

oksigen oxygen

orang person/people (as in orang utang)

pasar market

pasar raya supermarket

raya (think of raja) king, queen , super

symtom - symptom

English (alphabetically)-Malay

clip - klip

free percuma

how  cara

market pasar

must mesti

new - bahru/baharu

or atau

oxygen - oksigen

oxymeter oksimeter

please sila

supermarket pasar raya

symptom - symtom

why mengapa

you/your anda

Useful Websites

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2021/06/malay-and-indonesian-food-menu-words.html

About the author

Angela Lansbury is Vice President Public Relations of Braddell Heights Advanced, and Tampines Changkat Advanced,  speakers training club which are part of Toastmasters International. The USA has several Spanish speaking as well as the English speaking clubs. You can pick up Spanish from buying or reading online their Spanish clubs welcome pages and manuals. 

In The USA, UK, Singapore and worldwide, there are many clubs which are English speaking, as well as Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, French, Tamil, Malay.

The inauguration of Tampines Changkat Advanced was Tuesday 29 2021, online on  zoom. Their meetings are on the fourth Tuesday evening of the month. They hope to hold meetings with a few people meeting physically, the others online, as soon as the Covid-19 conditions allow.

You can find the club through their facebook page as well as through Toastmasters International find a club. 

https://www.facebook.com/tampineschangkatadvTMC

The meetings are free for visitors. Visitors can watch, and join in speaking by introducing themselves and volunteering to do a 2 minutes impromptu  speech in table topics.

If you wish to join for a year, it costs about 190 US dollars, to have monthly meetings online, a mentor, a magazine, and one of the 11  Pathways, consisting of 14 projects. Each project starts with 3 speeches of your choice of subject, lasting 4 to 6 minutes, then 5 to 7 minutes. The Pathways include the most popular Presentation Mastery. I chose  humorous speaking as my second Pathway, costing 20 dollars. Then my third was a leadership course. Come and see for free.

The club also has meetings in person in Singapore

You can also contact my other club, smaller Braddell Heights Advanced, which is a cosy little club with more chances to speak.

Login through bha.learncool.sg/meet/bha 

That will link you through to Zoom or googlemeet. 2 pm to 5 pm.

BHA meets the first Wednesday evening each month, starting at 7 pm Singapore time. 

Then an extra meeting on the 3rd Saturday afternoon, starting at 2 pm Singapore time.

To check your time zone,  

https://24timezones.com/difference/singapore/ 

Meetings will be on Wed July 7th and  Saturday July 17th.

Contact either of these or other clubs through Toastmasters International Find a Club.

more later

YWCA, Singapore, looks like a five star hotel - stay there or marry there

Singapore Flag

(Not to be confused with the YMCA around the corner!) The YWCA is centrally located near Dhoby Ghaut, one of Singapore's busiest railway stations, at the foot of Fort Canning hillside with its historic monuments and exhibitions.

YWCA. Exterior. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Next to the Red Cross building behind the Park Mall (now a noisy building site). The YWCA seemed to have as many males as females.

It is more like a four star hotel than a hostel. The appearance is five star.


Grand piano in hall of YWCA. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Travel writer and photographer.

A grand piano stood in the marble hall. It has the conveniences of a ground floor dining room, a hairdresser so you can look your festive best in the dining room and a well-stocked shop to help you complete your outfit for lunch or a conference.


The YWCA hallway. Shop and hairdresser at the far end. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

I bought a smart black baseball hat with a touch of red and the initials SG for Singapore. Only five Singapore dollars. Very smart with my black cape blazer. If you want to buy one, the hats are in navy or black.

Angela in her black hat, bought from the shop in the YWCA. Photo by Angela Lansbury.Copyright.

Upstairs near the lifts is a cabinet containing cute Chinese cups donated by a well-wisher. At the far end is a grand conference hall where I attended a Toastmasters International training session.

Water
For our one-day conference, we had an urn of water and glasses at the back of the room.

Food
At the morning break time separate halal food was clearly marked on a separaate table.
The lunch buffet in the restaurant for our conference was quite varied. A table was set up for vegetarians to eat together. Separate halal food was provided.

Quantity was the word. I prefer my chicken without a batter coating but the chicken inside was moist. I later discovered a salad bar and smoked salmon appeared!

Pool and Groups
As I used the lift I noticed there was a swimming pool on the second floor. I saw various groups arriving and leaving by coach, all with little wheel on bags, groups of adults and groups of teens.

YMCA and YWCA Bedrooms
Singapore has two branches of the YMCA. I have known them to be fully booked at busy times of year, so enquire well ahead if you are thinking of staying there.

While I was checking on booking.com it showed no rooms available at the YWCA and only one available at the YMCA around the corner. That got snapped up whilst I was changing the currency quoted. Booking.com was still quoting me prices in the last country I visited, Bulgarian Lev. I switched to UK pounds, although if I had booked I would have been paying in Singapore dollars. The add on price of tax and service is quite high, but you save on fares being in centre by buses and trains - and walking distance of some museums if you are happy to walk around in the humidity, with the Battle Box and the current Singapore Bicentennial exhibition for summer 2019. Make sure you also see Dhoby Ghaut MRT station.

Promotion for weddings at the YWCA. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Weddings at YWCA
You can also get married in the YWCA. Toastmasters met there, approriately, because the Toastmasters International speakers training organization - now re-branded as where leaders are made, was started in the YMCA in California. You can attend Toastmasters meetings at the YWCA and YMCA nearby (10 dollars guest fee covers snack supper of savoury and sweet).

Useful Websites:
http://ywca.org.sg/
booking.com
https://www.hotelscombined.com.sg/Hotel/YWCA_Fort_Canning_Lodge
https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club
singaporeair.com

All in all, a great venue for those just visiting for the day's conference or staying there overnight.

Author, Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See my other posts on the Battle Box and Singapore Bicentennial exhibition. Please save links to your favourite posts and share links with your family and friends.

Shop and Dine At Changi Airport terminal 3 - clear signs

Photo by Angela Lansbury

To sum it up Food and shopping
Level 1 (ground floor)
Paris Baguette
Ma Mum
Cheers

Level 2
Bakery cuisine, Coffee Club,The Shilla duty free cosmetics and perfumes, Starbucks, Watsons drugstore.

Level 2M
Andes Steaks, Food Emporium food court
McDonalds, London Duck.

Paris Baguette has familiar western food such as croissants with smoked salmon and avocado pear.
For local food, Ma Mum offers kaya toast and beef randang and much more. See their website.

Singapore is a great stopover between Russia or Europe and Australia. 

Travel Tips

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

australia.com

visitbritain.com

visitbritain.shop.com

visitbritain.org

visittheusa.co.uk

visitsingapore.com

Singapore Airlines: 

singaporeair.com

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2018/12/secret-travellers-seen-on-newton-station.html

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/01/cute-musicians-in-cartoons-on-toilet.html

See also my posts on Waterloo Street, The National Gallery, and Singapore's big attractions.

Fabulous Fazer Chocolates and Chocolate Factory visit in Finland

Fab chox! 

I was given Fazer chocolates in Singapore. Alcoholic centres. Crunchy. Great chocolate. Different colours wrappers for different flavours. gold and green, or gold and red and green and blue wrappers.

The alcoholic chocolate wrappers have letters in various languages about the contents.

Maraschino by Fazer. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Maraschino is a liqueur made from the Marasca cherry. The bitter sweet cherry comes from a European coastal tree.

Chocolate Factory

I looked Fazer up on the web and found they had a factory you can visit in Finland. Open every day of the week. 

You can visit their factory shop during opening hours for free. They sell chocolates, bread, cereals, t-shirts, magnets and more. They also have a cafe. The winding path to the factory leads past the trees and bushes which contribute ingredients and flavours to their products, such as chocolate, and sugar beet.

Booking Tours
But you must book a factory visit with guided tour. The fee (at the time of writing, Jan 2019) eleven euros plus the ticketmaster fee.

Where
The Fazer factory is about 40 minutes from Helsinki city centre.

Chocolate Worldwide
You can do chocolate factory visits all over the world. I've been to shops and factory tours in the UK, Cadbury's, in Switzerland, Alprose. Americans lover Hersheys. Chocolate fairs take place in London, England, Perugia, Italy, and many other places. (See my previous posts on chocolate.)

Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

More Information from
https://n.stuccu.com/s/Fazer+Chocolate

Visitfazer.com

https://www.visitacity.com/en/helsinki

https://www.visitfinland.com/

Author

Angela Lansbury

For chocolate cake in Singapore, see last post.

Lovely coloured lanterns in Hanoi, Vietnam

Photo by Angela Lansbury.

I presume these lanterns are paper or reinforced paper. You see them strung across the fronts of shops and restaurants. Another design has paintings of flowers or other patterns on the coloured background.
In Hanoi, capital of Vietnam.

In the UK we most often see the circular, collapsible lanterns, mostly in plain white, sold in cheap stores. These lanterns in Vietnam are more like a teardrop design.

For hotels
booking.com
Comparison site:
https://www.clicktripz.com/rates/search/index
For airlines
travelok.com
vietJetair.com (Comprehensive list of budget airlines in Wikivoyage.)
For transport
https://www.grab.com/vn/en/

Language
Duolingo.com 
(Remember to click on the sound symbol to hear how words are pronounced.) 

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.
Please share links to your favourite posts. I have several more on Hanoi, Halong Bay and Vietnam.

Shangri-La Hotel, Singapore, Food Shopping and Window-shopping

Problem
What to buy to take home from the Shangri-la hotel. I feel every major hotel should have at least one shop. Especially a hotel such as the Shangri-La which is not conveniently near a department store nor a corner shop. Why has the shop gone? I presume that the shop was rented out and either the rent charged went up or the shop owner was not making enough money.

Some hotel spas are run on a similar basis. But imagine if the hotel swimming pool was allowed to disappear because the manager could not make enough from the swimming pool bar, and sales of swimsuits. I've been to motels without the pool. Sometimes outdoor pools don't operate in winter, in
the cold or rainy season.

I once got my money back from a hotel which advertised itself as having a pool when none was available. We checked out for the next two nights and complained. (The place was also being removed with missing ceiling tiles and daubs on walls.)

I feel the same about a five-star hotel with no shop. Shopping and eating are considered the two major activities for Singaporeans. (Swimming pools comes a close first, second or third for most holidaymakers. One of my friends booked a day at the Marina Bay Sands hotel so his children could enjoy the rooftop infinity pool.)

I feel that hotels are missing out by not having a second pool only for users of the restaurants who are not residents.

However, the Shangri-La compensates with a pleasant walk. And a food shop next to the lobby door.

From a distance, my first thought was, that's a cake like Rodin's The Thinker. Then I thought Batman, a more likely subject for a cake. Then spider man. You can all argue with each other. He is sitting on a skyscraper. They could probably make any subject, if you had a photo.  He is a cake, yes a cake. You can see the words Custom Made Cakes on the top of the glass.

A cake with a little bear on top.

 Fancy cakes in fancy shapes with vivid colours.

Wow. A carousel cake. Plus little cakes for little guests.

So clever. So intricate. Hours of work. And practise.

The window display of cakes is a delightful stop for Mums towing children past. We admired the car, the Lego brick cake.

At the back of the shop we checked the wine prices. One wine was cheaper in London.

We bought two of the jams. I fancied mango and durian. The other one we chose was calamansi brandy. Unusual.

Useful Websites
visitsingapore.com
http://www.shangri-la.com/singapore/shangrila/dining/restaurants/the-line/
https://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/Hotel_Review-g294265-d302109-Reviews-Shangri_La_Hotel_Singapore-Singapore.html

Author
Angela Lansbury

Wine Theme Finds In The Wine Shop At The Old Bridge Hotel, Huntingdon

The Old Bridge Hotel and Wine Shop, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, England. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Problem
Where do you find fun items on a wine theme for yourself or other wine lovers?

Answers
In the USA drive north of San Francisco and you will come to wine country where every few miles you will find vineyards and wine cellars with shops the size of supermarkets. They stock everything you could think of on a wine theme: diaries and tasting books, label printers and removers and albums for labels, tea towels, aprons, corkscrews in every shape, size, colour and design, imitation bottle lamps, barrel tables and chairs.

Over in Europe, in Spain in the city of Haro, capital of the Rioja vineyards region, the shops of Muga and others had a wonderful silk scarf with a bunch of grapes design. A few miles away in a wine museum I found silver bunches of grapes, and vine leaf napkin holders.

On Ebay I hunted for wine jewellery and found tee-shirts, grape theme fabrics made into clothes, aprons.

My bottle and glass ring bought from the internet.

Most wine shops offer one or two items. You just have to keep looking.

My latest find is the Wine Shop at The Bridge Hotel, Huntingdon. Their online wine shop sells their wines, but it's much more fun to visit the wine shop. Sometimes we have been lucky enough to speak the owner, who is a master of wine, other times we saw him wine tasting with a VIP seller or buyer. Other times he has been away on travels, probably wine buying.

At first sight there are not many gifts, but they are in four separate areas. On my last visit, some items were on the rack outside the shop, others by the counter, more in both of the windows.

Hand gels and lotions from the Wine Shop.

Fancy bags for bottles as gifts.

Here are my favourite items from The Wine Shop at The Bridge Hotel:

For sheer amusement, alligator shape bottle openers.

Corkers
Turn your old corks into animals with a kit made by Monkey Business.

Corkers turning corks into animals.

Wine Bottle Candles History.

Imitation Cork Candles

Origami Sets

Tea towels or glass clothes with pretty patterns, and wooden serving platters and te light holders.

Magnetic Animals which pull apart and hold notepaper.

 Bottle and Glass gift packs

Bottles Recycled As Storage Jars With Carved Wood Tops - Each One Individual

Bottle Openers

On the wine shop website I see only bottles of wine for sales, so I presume you have to go to the shop to buy the gifts. Visiting the shop also enables you to buy tastes of wine from the machine, which dispenses wine tastes in two sizes.

We enjoyed a very nice lunch at the Old Bridge Hotel, which we have visited several times. For the first time, prompted by the hotel and wine shop owner, we tried a wine called Grünerveltliner, which is the name of the grape, made by FX Pichler. This is a pricey wine for special occasions. We loved the aroma and taste and bought some from the shop to celebrate our wedding anniversary.

If you are looking for gifts for a birthday, wedding anniversary, Valentine's Day, Xmas, or for hosts at a dinner party, or to amuse your guests:
try these words:
bar accessories
barrel furniture
bottle gifts
bottle lamps
bottle openers
bottle stoppers
carafe
Coravin
corks
cork cutters
cork gifts
grape
Platypus
wine label gifts
wine label remover
wine accessories
wine bottle
wine gifts
wine glass markers
wine glasses
wine saver

Useful Websites
To visit the Old Bridge Hotel wine shop and restaurant and hotel:
http://www.huntsbridge.com
To buy their wine online:
http://www.oldbridgewine.co.uk
Other gadgets from other suppliers:
https://www.bottledandboxed.com/category/476/accessories
visitbritain.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have written other posts on The Old Bridge Hotel and Restaurant. Please share links to your favourite posts.